


Are You Happy?

by Control_Room



Series: Charlotte, Joey, and... Joey? [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: 5+1 Things, Bonding, Explanations, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Questions, soft, very minor tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:43:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21761083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room
Summary: Five times Johan asked Jekyll, and once Jekyll asked Johan.
Relationships: Joey Drew & Henry Stein, Joey Drew & Joey Drew, Joey Drew/Charlotte Drew
Series: Charlotte, Joey, and... Joey? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1568356
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Are You Happy?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BallofYarn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BallofYarn/gifts).



> a 5+1 that explains a basic timeline of this series  
> much much love to star <3

The first time Johan asked him, he did not even ask it to his face. No, he sniffed it in hurt, upset, disheveled, exhausted. Of course he was, how could he not be? After such a stressful night, who would not be? He tried his best to keep a brave face throughout the whole terrifying ordeal, struggled to maintain his composure when he wanted nothing more than to scream and curl up into a tight invisible ball, and now was just so tired of it all. He felt like he had just been thrown into a blender and dumped out onto the counter. As much as he wanted to go and rest, he felt the pains tugging at his heartstrings once more, and made his way back into the dimension of the man who caused him to lose about five years of his life. 

As he bandaged the other’s wrists, he kept his eyes down, worried they would betray the acidic question he demanded in his mind, the question he angrily asked the air instead of the man he was worrying for. It echoed in his mind, haunting him as he helped Jekyll.

_ Are you happy now? _

“No,” the marks on his wrists answered for him. “I’m alone.”

And so Johan showed him his own scars, and hoped he would understand that he was not alone.

* * *

The second time Johan asked him, they were both tired. They had spent a long day working together on picking up some of the pieces of Jekyll’s life. Specifically the wreck he lived in called the studio. Well, that he called a studio. Johan called it a fire hazard. They managed to clear a lot of the debris and fix some of the pipes, generally making Jekyll’s work space just a little bit neater, as well as giving the old man a good work out. As they leaned against a wall, tired out, Johan passed Jekyll a flask.

“I thought you don’t drink?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow and the bottle. 

“Not often,” Johan shrugged. “And that’s not what you probably think it is. That’s s-some home brewed sweet tea.”

Jekyll, only slightly skeptical, unscrewed the lid and took a cautious sip.

His eyes widened at the delightful taste, and then he drank half the flask. 

“I… uh…” he muttered as he passed it back to Johan with a guilty expression. Johan only smiled a little, hugging him over the shoulders.

“There’s far more where that came from, d-doc,” he chuckled. There was a lapse of silence between them. Then, Johan asked again, “Are you happy, Doctor Jekyll?”

“...” Jekyll closed his eyes and thought hard. He found himself lying through his teeth, “Yes.”

Johan looked at him with a soft but extremely intense glint in his eyes.

“I do wish that… nevermind.”

Something in Johan’s eyes, no, behind them, something in Johan’s soul, understood. Understood what it meant to want something and not be able to get it. Yearning for freedom, but fearing the ears that may hear the prayer.

Not long after that, Johan stormed into Jekyll’s mind to help him defeat his literal demon, his captor, and gave him his freedom back.

* * *

When Johan asked Jekyll the third time, they were eating a pie that Johan had baked with Mary Jane, following one of Charlotte’s recipes. 

Johan had been looking intently at Jekyll as he nibbled on his slice, and Jekyll set down his fork with a sigh and smile. 

“What is it, Johan?” he gently asked, leaning back in his seat. Johan’s eyes widened. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you watching me. What’s bothering you, kid?”

“Oh, nothing, n-nothing, don’t bother yourself Doctor,” Johan waved it off. “Just thinkin’ is all.”

“Just thinking?” Jekyll smiled, then continued teasingly. “I know Johan Ramirez doesn’t just think. He always has a question, don’t you?”

“This one is… well… you know…” he struggled with his mind, trying to find the right words to use. “Personal?”

“Johan,” Jekyll said with a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. “You know you can ask me anything.”

Johan stared at the table, biting his lip anxiously, the gears of his mind turning slowly to process the situation optimally.

“Are you happy?” he asked him quietly. “Now that Hyde’s gone?”

Jekyll’s smile gradually fading away was all the answer Johan needed.

Jekyll poked at the slice of pie on his plate, feeling his appetite almost completely drained.

It was his wife’s old recipe, baked by his daughter…

Neither of which were with him.

Johan got up quietly, going over to Jekyll, urging him to eat in a soft voice, hugging him over the shoulders.

Jekyll dropped his face into his hands, feeling his tears spill over. 

He missed his family too much to be happy.

Johan felt it, and searched for a way to pull together the pieces.

A few months later, on the day of the dead, Jekyll found that not all his family was gone, and even those that were never really left him.

* * *

  
  


The fourth time Johan asked Jekyll, they were sitting in Johan’s rose garden, bees humming around them quietly, spreading the growth of the flowers and bringing blooms to burst. Jekyll spent a good deal of his time in Johan’s world since Hyde’s vanquishing and Charlotte's ghostly reemergence. It was, in fact, another morning after she left them again, both Johan and Jekyll slightly tired from staying up all night, but rejuvenated by the wonderful time they had together with her. They lazed about on the grass, looking at the clouds pass by above, chatting about anything that came to mind.

Jekyll felt strangely at peace, spacing out as they relaxed. He slowly stopped hearing Johan’s endless stream of chatter, it merging with the sound of his heartbeat, completely enjoying the low sonorous tones of the young man’s voice. Johan rolled over to rest his head on Jekyll’s chest, and his hand reached to grasp Jekyll’s. Jekyll could vaguely hear him ask a question, and it brought him back to reality. 

“Hm?” he mumbled, lifting his head off the ground to see Johan better. “What was that, kid?”

“Are y’happy?” Johan sleepily muttered. 

Jekyll stared at the clouds. 

“I don’t know,” he sighed. But deep down he knew the answer. He was getting better, yes, but… he had a long way to go. “I don’t think so. I’m… so sorry. For so much.”

Johan decided that Jekyll was ready, and after a long negotiation with Snowy and Gingie, Jekyll finally saw his daughters again.

* * *

The fifth time Johan asked him, it was just a few weeks before his birthday. Snowy and Gingie had just come by with Mary Jane and Ivy, Charlotte just came and then left, Jekyll’s relationship with his family becoming healthy once more, and a slow friendship growing between himself and the other two Joeys. 

It seemed like it came out of the blue. It was not, being that Johan waited for that moment that it was just after Jekyll had been with his family, but to Jekyll, to come inside from a stroll outside, and being asked point blank-

“Are you h-happy, Doc?” Johan inquired, his back facing the older man, washing the dishes left by the guests carefully, setting each one aside delicately with nimble fingers. Jekyll stood dumbly in the doorway, trying to process what the chicano had asked. “Well?”

“Can you repeat that?” he requested, dumbfounded. “I didn’t quite understand.”

“Are… are you happy?” Johan nervously repeated, drying his hands off on a towel, not turning to face Jekyll. “....”

Jekyll deflected it, “Are you?”

Johan stayed silent.

Jekyll frowned.

Then he sighed.

Then smiled weakly.

“You got me again, Johan,” Jekyll wryly remarked. “... not yet. While I’m glad my family is safe and I’m rebonding with them….”

He shrugged.

Johan glanced at him, then nodded.

On Jekyll’s birthday, he got a happy birthday from a man he never dreamed he would be able to see again, a man he never believed he would be able to call his brother again, and he wept from his happiness.

* * *

When Jekyll finally asked him, it was a long time later.

Who knows the exact amount of time.

It did not matter, and does not.

Jekyll leaned against the doorpost, looking in at the young blue haired man. 

Johan was gazing out the window at his rose garden, red eyes reflected in the nana tea beside him, absentmindedly scrawling on blueprint paper, thinking up another scheme or toy or cartoon.

And Jekyll smiled.

He was so happy, so proud.

He hoped that he was too, so, he asked.

“Hey kid,” he smoothly stated, sliding into the room, reaching over to ruffle Johan’s hair, sitting beside him. “I have a question for you. Something small, but important.”

“Of c-course, anything,” Johan sincerely replied, looking at him with big innocuous eyes.

“Are you happy?”

Johan blinked, processing.

Then a big goofy grin spread over his face.

“I think you can answer that, pap.”

Jekyll’s smile dashed across his face.

“I think so, too,” he managed to breathe, getting up and going to hug Johan tightly. “Yes. Thank you. Thank you, son.”

Johan said nothing, did nothing, just smiled tearfully as he hugged him back.

In getting Jekyll his family back, he had gained one of his own.


End file.
